Checkstyle - Imports

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AvoidStarImport

Description

Checks that there are no import statements that use the * notation.

Rationale: Importing all classes from a package leads to tight coupling between packages and might lead to problems when a new version of a library introduces name clashes.

Properties

name	description	type	default value
excludes	packages where star imports are allowed. Note that this property is not recursive, subpackages of excluded packages are not automatically excluded.	list of strings	empty list

Example

An example how to configure the check so that star imports from java.io and java.net are allowed:


	<module name="AvoidStarImport"> <property name="excludes" value="java.io,java.net"/> </module>

Package

com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.checks.imports

Parent Module

TreeWalker

AvoidStaticImport

Description

Checks that there are no static import statements.

Rationale: Importing static members can lead to naming conflicts between class' members. It may lead to poor code readability since it may no longer be clear what class a member resides in (without looking at the import statement).

Properties

name	description	type	default value
excludes	Allows for certain classes via a star notation to be excluded such as java.lang.Math.* or specific static members to be excluded like java.lang.System.out for a variable or java.lang.Math.random for a method. If you exclude a starred import on a class this automatically excludes each member individually. For example: Excluding java.lang.Math.*. will allow the import of each static member in the Math class individually like java.lang.Math.PI.	list of strings	empty list

Example

An example of how to configure the check so that the java.lang.System.out member and all members from java.lang.Math are allowed:


	<module name="AvoidStaticImport"> <property name="excludes" value="java.lang.System.out,java.lang.Math.*"/> </module>

Package

com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.checks.imports

Parent Module

TreeWalker

IllegalImport

Description

Checks for imports from a set of illegal packages. By default, the check rejects all sun.* packages since programs that contain direct calls to the sun.* packages are not 100% Pure Java. To reject other packages, set property illegalPkgs to a list of the illegal packages.

Properties

name	description	type	default value
illegalPkgs	packages to reject	list of strings	sun

Examples

To configure the check:


	<module name="IllegalImport"/>

To configure the check so that it rejects packages java.io.* and java.sql.*:


	<module name="IllegalImport"> <property name="illegalPkgs" value="java.io, java.sql"/> </module>

Package

com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.checks.imports

Parent Module

TreeWalker

RedundantImport

Description

Checks for redundant import statements. An import statement is considered redundant if:

It is a duplicate of another import. This is, when a class is imported more than once.
The class imported is from the java.lang package, e.g. importing java.lang.String.
The class imported is from the same package.

Example

To configure the check:


	<module name="RedundantImport"/>

Package

com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.checks.imports

Parent Module

TreeWalker

UnusedImports

Description

Checks for unused import statements. Checkstyle uses a simple but very reliable algorithm to report on unused import statements. An import statement is considered unused if:

It is not referenced in the file. The algorithm does not support wild-card imports like import java.io.*;. Most IDE's provide very sophisticated checks for imports that handle wild-card imports.
It is a duplicate of another import. This is when a class is imported more than once.
The class imported is from the java.lang package. For example importing java.lang.String.
The class imported is from the same package.

The main limitation of this check is handling the case where an imported type has the same name as a declaration, such as a member variable.

For example, in the following case the import java.awt.Component will not be flagged as unused:


	import java.awt.Component; class FooBar { private Object Component; // IMHO bad practise ... }

Example

To configure the check:


	<module name="UnusedImports"/>

Package

com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.checks.imports

Parent Module

TreeWalker

ImportOrder

Description

Checks the ordering/grouping of imports. Features are:

groups imports: ensures that groups of imports come in a specific order (e.g., java. comes first, javax. comes second, then everything else)
adds a separation between groups : ensures that a blank line sit between each group
sorts imports inside each group: ensures that imports within each group are in lexicographic order
sorts according to case: ensures that the comparison between imports is case sensitive
groups static imports: ensures the relative order between regular imports and static imports (see import orders)

Properties

name	description	type	default value
option	policy on the relative order between regular imports and static imports	import order	under
groups	list of imports groups (every group identified by string it's started)	list of strings	empty list
ordered	whether imports within group should be sorted	Boolean	true
separated	whether imports groups should be separated by, at least, one blank line	Boolean	false
caseSensitive	whether string comparision should be case sensitive or not	Boolean	true

Example

To configure the check so that it requires that:

"java" packages first, then "javax" and then all other imports
imports will be sorted in the groups
groups are separated by, at least, on blank line
static imports are above each local groups

<module name="ImportOrder">
    <property name="groups" value="java,javax"/>
    <property name="ordered" value="true"/>
    <property name="separated" value="true"/>
    <property name="option" value="above"/>
</module>

Package

com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.checks.imports

Parent Module

TreeWalker

ImportControl

Description

Controls what can be imported in each package. Useful for ensuring that application layering rules are not violated, especially on large projects.

The DTD for a import control XML document is at http://www.puppycrawl.com/dtds/import_control_1_1.dtd. It contains documentation on each of the elements and attributes.

The check validates a XML document when it loads the document. To validate against the above DTD, include the following document type declaration in your XML document:

<!DOCTYPE import-control PUBLIC
    "-//Puppy Crawl//DTD Import Control 1.1//EN"
    "http://www.puppycrawl.com/dtds/import_control_1_1.dtd">

Properties

name	description	type	default value
file	name of the file containing the import control configuration.	string	null
url	url of the file containing the import control configuration.	string	null

Example

To configure the check using a import control file called "import-control.xml", then have the following:


	<module name="ImportControl"> <property name="file" value="import-control.xml"/> </module>

In the example below, all classes beginning with an I in the package java.awt are allowed. In the package java.io only the classes File and InputStream are allowed.


	<import-control pkg="com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle"> <allow class="java\.awt\.I.*" regex="true"/> <allow class="java\.io\.(File\|InputStream)" local-only="true" regex="true"/> </import-control>

For an example import control file, look at the file called import-control.xml which is part of the Checkstyle distribution.

Package

com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.checks.imports

Parent Module

TreeWalker